Is it wrong to use my ethnicity to get a job?

May 9, 2006 11:48 AM

MoralityFilter: Can I apply as a minority with out looking like an ass?

Like most people in America, I am of mixed heritage. My grandfather was a black-cuban, but due to the gene pool lottery I am alabaster white with red hair. I wasn't raised in an environment where I experienced any prejudice, so my parents never let me apply for any minority scholarships or anything.

Many of the jobs I am applying for seem to be specifically trying to fill some sort of quota. Is there a tactful way to say "Hey! I'm hispanic!" . Not to be silly, but if I tan and don't straighten my hair I look much more hispanic, should I spray on some tan and dye my hair as dark as the rest of my family. I know this is weird. Sorry.

posted by anonymous to work & money (25 comments total)

There are plenty of hispanic folks out there who don't look "the part." If you're hispanic, then put down hispanic. Don't try and change your appearance, thats the foolish part of the question.
posted by Atreides at 12:07 PM on May 9, 2006

Well, the idea of minority quotas and the like is less about discrimination per se, more about the limited opportunities available to minorities and to overcome any cultural bias on the part of the hiring staff (which overwhelming will probably be white).

It's up to you, but if you do this you might reinforce people's beliefs that minority hiring practices are a sham and used as a loophole. Not to be alarmist, but you could be taking a job from someone who has faced discrimination throughout their life and missed opportunities because of it.
posted by geoff. at 12:09 PM on May 9, 2006

I've had this discussion before, and I honestly feel that any kind of affirmative action programs/EOE job postings out there are looking to protect visible minorities.

If you yourself haven't faced any prejudice, then you're not going to need a leg up based on your heritage, are you? Bringing it up at an interview is likely to make you look like a major toolbox.
posted by SassHat at 12:15 PM on May 9, 2006

Skipping over ethical considerations, from a practical perspective, the most difficult part of the question is what to do when there isn't a space on a form on which to "put down" your ethnicity. Frankly, I'm at a loss as to what you can do in this situation, but I agree that trying to make your appearance "more hispanic" is probably a mistake. Do you speak Spanish? You could put that on your resume, and try and use that as a hook to introduce your background into conversation. But man, this is something that's tricky to do tactfully.
posted by mr_roboto at 12:17 PM on May 9, 2006

SassHat: I think he's saying that he's actually more likely to get the job if he applies as a minority, not that he'd experience less prejudice.

I say you (original poster) should just make sure it's specified on the forms, etc (and perhaps have some proof if it hits interview stage). Time to show up the ridiculous quotas and affirmative action laws for what they are. Racism under a cute name.
posted by wackybrit at 12:20 PM on May 9, 2006

I myself am mixed, Puerto Rican and Mediterranian European. My mother is very fair with blue eyes, my father looks typically Hispanic/Arabic (as does my brother, but he got the blue eyes). For better or for worse, i got my father's features and my mother's complexion. While i was certainly aware of my Puerto Rican heritage, I grew up in a predominantly black area in/around Detroit. So things were, i guess, complex. When I went to University, I was invited to minority orientation day, which i of course went to, but I got more than a few funny looks.

I wanted to say that just as background, really. I really understand where you're coming from. To answer your question, however, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't *deny* your heritage, and if these jobs are looking for that, well you have it. I wouldn't change your appearence at all. I mean, that's the point right? I'm always accused of "pretending" to be Puerto Rican because people come with their prejudices, but i don't feel any less so just because of how I look.

Besides, if you get an interview and when you walk in, if they say something to the effect of "Oh, wow. you don't LOOK hispanic" well, it's not YOU that looks like an ass.
posted by indiebass at 12:25 PM on May 9, 2006

I think these laws are usually in place to protect visible minorities who have experienced prejudice while trying to break into the working world. If you, as you have said, have not experienced such hardship, it doesn't seem right to take advantage of the system. I think your parents had the right idea on this matter.

Racism under a cute name.

Oh the poor White people. Truly they lead a hard life. If only they could catch a break; maybe, just maybe, they could be running everything.
posted by chunking express at 12:33 PM on May 9, 2006

If you didn't experience any racism based on your ethnicity, you shouldn't take advantage of affirmative action which seeks to redress these wrongs.

If it's just a matter of businesses seeking workplace diversity and you wanting to use this to get a leg up on the competition, you can indicate that you're hispanic, but it may backfire if your cultural identity is not particularly influenced by your ethnicity. This depends an awful lot on what kind of job this is, though.
posted by desuetude at 12:36 PM on May 9, 2006

This is exactly why there should be no preference, quota, or affirmative action. Get over it. The Irish did. The catholics did, The Italians did, the Canadians did, all at one time despised minorities.
posted by Gungho at 12:46 PM on May 9, 2006

on preview: the Canadians still are.
posted by Gungho at 12:46 PM on May 9, 2006

I would say your only ethical obligation is to be honest. Really, you can't be second guessing the diversity guidelines set up by various prospective employers, or intuiting why they have those guidelines. If you're honest, you're on firm ethical ground.
posted by mr_roboto at 12:53 PM on May 9, 2006

Don't bring it up. Jesus. I know a kid who got into a prestigious university because his grandfather was a Jew in Cuba, so he represented himself as hispanic. Everyone who found out regarded him as a giant douchebag for doing so.
posted by klangklangston at 1:24 PM on May 9, 2006

I am a half hispanic and half German American. I look like a regular European but even the hispanic side of the family remained relatively pure unlike the majority of Mexicans who are mixed pretty thoroughly with the indian population. So I don't look like what most people associate with the chicano stereotype.

I usually check the "of hispanic origin" box on job applications and see nothing unethical about it. By definition I am of hispanic origin. I tend to orient myself more toward a mixed culture and even though I am not fluent in spanish, I'm working on pushing my fluency. Just about everyone on my dad's side of the family speaks spanish including him. I have been called on it when in college I applied for a specific minority position with the state. One guy in the interview point blank asked me with derision, "What makes you think you are a minority?" I just said truthfully that it is my heritage and that my ancestors were hispanic so that pretty much makes me hispanic by default. I mean what do you say to that?

Does the fact that some blacks have great-grandparents that were impregnated by their slave-masters and led to some mostly white offspring make them less black?
posted by JJ86 at 1:25 PM on May 9, 2006

Really, you can't be second guessing the diversity guidelines set up by various prospective employers, or intuiting why they have those guidelines. If you're honest, you're on firm ethical ground.

Absolutely. Amazing how high and mighty people can be when it comes to other people's livelihoods. If it will benefit you to mention a part of your actual heritage, by all means do so. If anyone thinks you're somehow gaming the system or doing something unethical, they're wrong.
posted by languagehat at 1:30 PM on May 9, 2006

Sorry, LH, but you didn't answer the question. The answer is, no, you cannot do it without looking like an ass.
posted by found missing at 1:52 PM on May 9, 2006

I think these laws are usually in place to protect visible minorities who have experienced prejudice while trying to break into the working world. If you, as you have said, have not experienced such hardship, it doesn't seem right to take advantage of the system. I think your parents had the right idea on this matter.


If you didn't experience any racism based on your ethnicity, you shouldn't take advantage of affirmative action which seeks to redress these wrongs.


That's bullshit.
It doesn't matter whether or not you're personally discriminated against, because that' only part of what affirmative action laws are meant to address. If your parents or their parents had fewer opportunities, then they would be less likely to be able to afford to send you to a prestigious (read: expensive) private college unless you were smart enough to get at least a partial scholarship. Meanwhile, other kids, some not as smart as you can attend that same school because their families can afford to just foot the bill. You think that doesn't affect your own employment opportunities? But hey, you're not being personally discriminated against.
posted by juv3nal at 3:02 PM on May 9, 2006

"If you yourself haven't faced any prejudice, then you're not going to need a leg up based on your heritage, are you?"

Do you think Micheal Jordan's kids (for example) shouldn't check the appropriate boxes when they apply for college/jobs because they don't need a "leg up?"

Check the box, anon.
posted by jaysus chris at 4:04 PM on May 9, 2006

Sorry, LH, but you didn't answer the question. The answer is, no, you cannot do it without looking like an ass.

All I can say is, if the choice were between having a job and making sure found missing didn't think I was an ass, I wouldn't hesitate long, and I don't think the poster need worry about it either. No offense; I'm sure there are people who value your opinion of them highly.
posted by languagehat at 5:39 PM on May 9, 2006

I don't think your attack on me was helpful to anon. I stand by my advice that most observers will view him as gaming the system and will, in fact, see him as an ass. That is notwithstanding his perfect right and reasonable justification to declare himself a "minority." But, his question was with respect to perceptions, not rights and justifications.
posted by found missing at 6:14 PM on May 9, 2006

Some people might think he's an ass. I happen to think those people are asses. I think doing weird cosmetic stuff to "look Hispanic" is a little questionable (though it's been done), but if you can somehow work it in, more power to you. You don't happen to belong to any Hispanic organizations, do you?

I have a half-Puerto Rican friend who nobody knows is Hispanic unless it comes up in conversation. I don't think he should get any more opportunity than an equally-qualified white guy when he applies for a position, but if an employer is so wrapped up in his personal close-minded "preferences" to handout jobs based on race, I have no problem with my friend gaining whatever advantage he can. Stupid policies invite abuse.

Maybe the employer could make his applicants' lives easier in the future by including spaces for quadroon and octoroon. Because some people just aren't black/Hispanic/deaf enough to get entitlements they haven't "earned".
posted by SuperNova at 10:39 PM on May 9, 2006

If you are hispanic than check that box regardless of how you look. If you get the "You don't look hispanic" statement, counter with "How should one of hispanic heritage look?"

For God's sake don't color your skin or change your hair. That just brings back flashbacks of horrible C. Thomas Howell movies!
posted by JigSawMan at 6:07 AM on May 10, 2006

Re-re-reading the question, I think the problem is not that there is space for anonymous to indicate race, but that there is not. Anonymous, you can tacitly get race into the discussion by getting involved with some sort of volunteer organization that serves the hispanic population in your area. Oh yeah, don't do this half-assed JUST because you think it would help you get a job, because then you're back to being an ass.

including spaces for quadroon and octoroon.
Are you being sarcastic?
posted by desuetude at 6:08 AM on May 10, 2006

One of my egyptian buddies applied for something as an african-american.

Hey, it's a tough world, take any edge you can.
posted by exhilaration at 9:49 AM on May 10, 2006

including spaces for quadroon and octoroon.
Are you being sarcastic?

Of course -- I was trying to imply that standards like "not really Hispanic" seem to be throwbacks to that era, which we have thankfully (mostly) moved beyond.
posted by SuperNova at 6:00 PM on May 10, 2006

Who, exactly, is going to know what you checked? Any employer passing that info out would be in an interesting legal position. Your telling the truth, and what you put down is no ones business.
posted by phewbertie at 4:59 AM on May 12, 2006